10 Things You Didn't Know About Arne Duncan
Duncan is Barack Obama's pick to head the Education Department
1. Arne Duncan was born Nov. 6, 1964. He grew up in the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park.
2. Duncan's parents were active in Chicago's academic life. His late father, Starkey, was a professor at the University of Chicago, and his mother, Susan, is the founder and namesake of a neighborhood tutoring center that she's run for decades.
3. As a young man, Duncan was a basketball standout at neighborhood games and at his school, the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. He was recruited to play college ball for Harvard and Princeton.
4. Duncan chose to attend Harvard, where he was cocaptain of the basketball team and an Academic All-American. He graduated magna cum laude in 1987 with a bachelor's in sociology.
5. Duncan took a year off from his undergraduate studies at Harvard to work with children at the tutoring center his mother had founded. He wrote his senior thesis about his experiences there.
6. After college, Duncan had an unsuccessful tryout with the NBA's Boston Celtics.
7. From 1987 to 1991, Duncan played professional basketball in Australia's National Basketball League. At the same time, he also held a government job—he was a social worker who dealt with troubled children.
8. Duncan returned to the United States in 1992 to direct the Ariel Education Initiative, a Chicago philanthropic organization designed to bring educational opportunity to students in disadvantaged communities.
9. Duncan took a job with the Chicago public school system in 1998. He headed the system's magnet school program and served as the deputy chief of staff of the system. Three years later, he was chosen to lead the system. He has been Chicago Public Schools CEO since 2001.
10. Duncan's wife, Karen, is a native of Australia. The two met while he was playing professional basketball in that country. She has worked as a high school physical education teacher and coach, and she was once the athletic director at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. The Duncans have two children, Claire and Ryan.
- Read more about Duncan's appointment.
Sources:
- The Associated Press
- The Australian
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Chicago Tribune
- New York Times
- San Francisco Chronicle
Reader Comments
Re: education
Duncan as secretary of education is a joke. When one look at what he did to Chicago, closing schools and pretending newly open school are better, Obama must think he is still on a basketball court. Importantly, when one looks at the education and experience Duncan brings, it is an insult to every teacher who is force to continue to go back to school to stay current on best 'practices'. Shame on Obama for choosing one who is destroying public education which serves the needs of all. Obama promised change, however, what we see is the same old thing. Who gave him the most money, gets the best white house jobs? Sounds like a big "Detroit".
My pick for Secretary of Education
Marva Collins, or one of her disciples, should be Secretary of Education
School - glsen
this is flat out wrong to impose this sexual perversion as a norm. it is not normal. it is a perversion, Children come to school to learn how to add and subtract and how to spell and understand language so that in general we could all be on the same page when looking at the outline of things....history, which should be what it is and not messed with for some folks agendas, and science.....no one should be teaching children social graces and what to think....teach em how to think, which seems to be lacking. I am angered by the audacity that a small percentage of perverts in this world want to impose on those who are vulnerable and take advantage of this to create a society of people who don't and can't think for themselves. this is why they are putting these all so obvious behavorial problem kiddos in the mainstream to disrupt, it is a dumbing down and a social engineering. this is not new its been in the works for some 50 years, now see how come our government can't make good decisions. You think about that.
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